


My Heart is Bound to Beat

by LemonadeDream



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Mild Language, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, The f word is used. Please help I don't swear irl, hand holding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-08-18 12:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8161573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonadeDream/pseuds/LemonadeDream
Summary: On most people's 18th birthday the name of their soul mate appears somewhere on their body. Lance is wondering just what he did to deserve such an ugly name permanently etched into his skin.





	1. With a Name like Keith, He's Gotta be Crusty

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, this is going to be a short chapter just to see if anyone is interested in reading it. It's my first fic and I hope you enjoy!

It was his 18th birthday and Lance had woken up earlier than he had in years. He knew that the name of his soulmate would be appearing somewhere on his body today and he couldn't wait! He quickly stripped himself and began to inspect his nude body in front of the mirror. Last night he'd fallen asleep to thoughts about who it could be; maybe one of the hotties he knew from school or a sexy celebrity who hadn't shown their soulmate's name to the public. It would likely be someone he'd never even met. Lance didn't really have a gender preference but he did want someone who was hot as hell. Just so they could match his beauty. All of those hopes were crushed the moment the name appeared. It showed up right along his left shoulder blade in fancy cursive and it took a good while to decipher it as reading a mirror image over your shoulder isn't something too many people consider easy.

When he finally did, he was pissed. "Keith." Like who hates their child enough that they decide to name them that? Was there a more unattractive name in the English language? Lance didn't want to hear it if there was. This was the name he was meant to call out in bed? Gosh. His life was really a joke, wasn't it? Figuring that he couldn’t very well spend his whole birthday in his room moping, Lance got dressed and made his way downstairs. Hopefully nobody would ask about his soulmate’s name..

It was a stupid hope. Before he could even reach the bottom of the stairs he was bombarded with questions.  
“Have you checked for the name yet Sweetie?” his mom asked.  
“I-“  
“I wanna see it!” his little sister Nina excitedly interrupted.  
“Well-“  
Once again, lance was cut off, this time by his brother “What’s the name?”  
Once everyone had spat out their questions and quieted down, he finally replied “Not even a Happy birthday?”.  
“Happy birthday. Now show us the name!” Nina was practically jumping out of her seat in eager excitement. Her (very advertised) dream was to be the flower girl at her big brother’s wedding.  
With a sigh, lance turned around and pulled up the back of his shirt to reveal the name. “k-eye-th..” Nina read “that’s a weird name”  
“It’s actually pronounced Keith” his mother corrected. Even though lance hated the name, hearing it in his mom’s smiling voice made him happy.  
Happy and proud for about two seconds before his brother decided to rudely interrupt his thoughts.  
“Keith is an old man name” he said wrinkling his nose “your soul mate is going to be a grandpa”  
“With a big grey beard!” Nina chimed in “and a thousand wrinkles”  
Building off of each other the siblings continued to describe Lance’s future husband.  
“and he smells like cigarettes!”  
“and he eats sardines!”  
“and he has a mustache too!”  
“He only likes to play chess!”  
“That’s enough you two.” Their mother scolded. But alas, the damage had already been done. Lance couldn’t get the image of a super old, crusty Keith out of his head. He was doomed.  
“Lance” his mother said “I know that this Keith fellow will be perfect for you. Just like your father is for me” she smiled all dreamily. All of the siblings made eye contact, knowing exactly where she was headed.


	2. Make My Heart Smile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading! Welcome to chapter 2! This chapter is dedicated to Just_Some_Chick, Caroline, and lazychicken! thank you for your encouragement!! btw If any of y'all wanted to contact me, my tumblr is sickgaymemes.tumblr.com

All together the siblings had probably heard the story a thousand times but that did nothing to stop their mother from telling it.  
“I remember my eighteenth birthday. When I saw your father’s name on my hand, I was ecstatic. I just knew we’d be soulmates and I was right.” she smiled recalling how special the day had been. Lance’s parents had the typical fairy-tale soulmate story; Meeting before eighteen and just having the feeling they were meant to be before proving to everyone that they were right when their names showed up on each others’ skin.  
“I even teared up a bit while showing him,” she admitted “It’s a really special thing, meeting your soulmate. I’m so excited for you sweetie”.  
Lance was well aware of how magical it was supposed to be when you met your soulmate but honestly, could that really happen? How could he be attracted to someone with such an ugly name? Would looks just suddenly not matter when he met this Keith guy?  
“And finally on his birthday, when we held hands,” his mother continued, “The names just lined up so perfectly and I could feel it even deeper in my heart”. This was the part where she would typically take their father’s hand if he were in the room.  
“Mama” Nina interrupted “Daddy said that every time you hold hands it makes his heart smile”.  
“That’s right!” their mother smiled warmly “When soulmates touch the names together, their hearts do a special smile”.  
“Maybe you and your old grandpa soulmate will touch names by doing a cool back to back crime fighting pose!” His little brother said, poking at the name on Lance’s shoulder. Being a crime fighting duo sounded really cool but lance knew that with his luck, there was no way that was going to happen.  
____________________________________________________________

After what seemed like the longest birthday breakfast he’d had in his life, Lance finally escaped to meet up with his friends who were equally as curious about the name as his family. After the "Happy birthday"s and presents were out of the way, he showed them.  
“Keith…I don’t think I know any Keiths.” Pidge was reading the name off of his back and Lance could just feel himself cringe hearing it.  
“I don’t either” Lance replied.  
“Hey,” Hunk chimed “maybe you can put your name on one of those soulmate matching websites!”  
“Maybe..” that’s what Lance’s plan had been until his siblings had put this damn image of a super old guy in his head. He didn’t want to be tied down, spoon feeding prunes to some old guy! He wanted to live!  
“Lance?” Hunk interrupted his thoughts “what’s wrong buddy?”  
“I don’t know. A lot I guess. What if he’s old? What if I don’t like him?”  
“He’s your soulmate. You’ll like him,” Pidge smirked “and you know he could be younger than you too. Maybe it’ll be years before your name shows up on his skin and you’ll be the old one”  
The thought of Keith being younger than him hadn’t occurred to Lance, but it was very comforting to hear. Soulmates weren’t usually that far apart in age, maybe he was worried over nothing.  
“You say that like its all so simple”  
“It was for me” Pidge was smiling. It was true though, when they had turned eighteen their own name had appeared on their chest, right over their heart. Some people are complete without a soulmate and pidge was one of those people. There hadn’t been any searching or worrying for them, just a happy confirmation of what they’d always felt.  
“Don’t worry about it Lance,” Hunk hadn’t found his soulmates yet but the way he blushed whenever anyone asked about it was quite frankly adorable. “Just be glad you only have one name to worry about!” the friends all laughed together at his comment. Despite his words, everyone knew that Hunk was excited to share his love with not only one, but two people. That’s what having a soulmate really is about right? Having someone to love. Lance was definitely ready to give his love to someone and, honestly, he was born to be showered in affection. Maybe looking for this Keith guy wasn’t such a bad idea..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment and let me know if I've made any mistakes or just to let me know what you want to see! We'll be meeting Keith soon~~ and so will lance ;)


	3. Omen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Sorry this chapter took a while. I really appreciate all the support, thank you guys!!

Standing butt naked staring into the bathroom mirror wasn’t exactly the way Keith usually kicked off his day, but today was his 18th birthday and a name should be showing up on his body at some point. He figured that he might as well look for it since it was supposed to help him in the process of finding his “other half”. 

Over the years, different foster parents had always been explaining to him what soulmates are like, whether Keith asked or not. Everyone said something a little bit different but they all seemed to agree that soulmates would love you forever and never leave you. Sort of like how parents do and sort of like how his didn’t.

It wasn’t like everyone fell head over heels at fist sight, but soulmates were supposed to form a deep connection over time. The only way they could be separated was by death. The thought of having someone like that put butterflies in his stomach. The name should be showing up somewhere on his body anytime now...  
… Except it wasn’t. He’d even been careful to remove his gloves to be sure he didn’t miss it if it showed up underneath. Where the hell could it be?  
He turned around to check his back again. No sign of a name.  
With suspicion, he spread his butt cheeks apart and peeked into the mirror.  
Nothing there either, thank God.  
Next, he flipped up his hair to check his neck.  
Nope.  
His inner thighs?  
No.  
Bottom of his foot?  
Nada.  
Keith was getting more desperate.  
Maybe tongue? He’d never heard of that before but anything is possible right?  
Wrong.  
Keith spent over thirty minutes inspecting every part of his body and found nothing. Damn. No matter what, you were supposed to get a name somewhere on your body when you turned eighteen. It wasn’t unheard of for someone not to get one, but people who didn’t were said to have soulmates that had already passed away. In fact, it was unusual for someone without a soulmate’s name to live past twenty-five. Not getting one was a pretty intense death omen. 

Shoving on a pair of shorts and a shirt, he headed to the kitchen and popped some bread into the toaster. It was too good to be true anyways right? He should’ve known he wouldn’t have a soulmate. Nobody had really cared all that much about him before, so why would any of that change just because of a birthday? It had been stupid to convince himself otherwise in the first place. Maybe some people would think his soulmate had died or something like that but who’s to say he ever would have had one? Maybe some people were meant to be alone or maybe something was just wrong with him. It was probably the latter. Maybe his parents had sensed he was messed up when he was born and just thought “lets get rid of this one and try again.” Maybe that’s what any soulmate he’d had would’ve thought anyways.  
________________

Keith couldn't even taste how burnt his toast was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading <3 I'm open to constructive criticism or any other comments you may have! :)


	4. Sometimes, You've Gotta Just Punch Away Your Feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, I apologize for the crazy long wait and thank you for continuing to read <3\. This chapter was not beta read so please let me know if you notice any problems.

For the next few days Keith found himself busy enough with school to stay distracted, but, by the time the weekend rolled around he felt his mood declining rapidly. On the bright side, none of his classmates or coworkers realized his birthday had passed. He figured that if someone did have questions about his soulmate he could just brush them off, it wasn’t like he was the most open guy in the world anyways. Sure, he’d been throwing himself a pity party in his head all week, but the last thing he wanted to see was someone else getting all upset when he told them the truth.  
It was scary that he had to deal with a death omen, but after a night of Google searches, he learned that some people who didn’t get a name actually lived normal lives. Hopefully he could be one of those. On the not-so-bright side, long, boring hours at work were putting him in a bad mood, and he had to admit, writing customers names on those little Starbucks cups all day probably wasn’t doing anything to help him forget about the lack of a name on his body.  
By the end of his shift, Keith had decided that the best course of action was to punch his feelings away; he set off to the gym. After a quick jog on the treadmill to warm up, he was ready to beat the hell out of the punching bag.  
“I haven’t seen you all week,” he heard a familiar voice behind him “I take it you had an eventful birthday?”  
Fuck. how could Keith forget about the one person who would definitely remember his birthday? What was he supposed to say?  
“Shiro,” Keith turned around to face his friend “not really, just a busy school week” he said, as if one’s eighteenth birthday wasn’t something special. Shiro raised his beautifully sculpted eyebrows in surprise.  
“Not eventful? Keith, you know it’s okay to get excited about your soulmate, everyone does.” Shiro seemed quite eager to celebrate what was supposed to be a special milestone in Keith’s life with him.  
“Actually...” it was probably best to just tell Shiro the truth; He’d have to let him know eventually, right? “nothing really did happen. I don’t have a soulmate.” Keith felt a knot in his stomach loosen. Had it been there all week? Maybe not telling anyone had been a bad decision.  
“Oh” It was clear that this wasn’t what the man had been expecting, but he responded sincerely. “I’m very sorry to hear that” he said, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder “let me know if there’s anything I can do to help”.  
“Thank you” Keith replied with a slight nod. He honestly just wanted to forget and try to live his life normally. “Want to spar?” he suggested. If anything was going to have him feeling like himself again, it was going to be a few rounds in the ring against Shiro.  
“Of course” Shiro would spar against his friend all evening if it meant he could get his mind off this and start to feel better. “I’m bringing my A game today though,” he warned “I saw that pounding you were giving the bag.” Shiro winked, pointing at the punching bag Keith had been beating on minutes ago.  
“Yeah,” Keith smiled “The bag brought its A game too.” He said wiping some sweat from his face with his shirt. Just talking with Shiro was lifting his spirits. “and now look at it, can’t even move” he joked. Keith expected some witty banter back from his sparring partner, but Shiro seemed distracted.  
“Hey,” he said with semi-zoned out eyes directed toward Keith’s chest “are you sure your birthday was last week?”  
Keith felt his soul groan at the question. Why would Shiro bring this up again? He was trying to forget…  
“I know when my birthday is” he replied, trying not to sound annoyed. He was a little confused, and a little wanting to say ‘hey Shiro, don’t know why I have to say this, but my eyes are up here’.  
“Well, unless you decided to get a tattoo in the past week, I’d say the date of birth they gave you at the orphanage was a little off” Shiro said, a small smile forming on his face.  
Keith felt his heart skip a beat. Was this really happening? Shiro wasn’t the type to screw with people.  
“Where?” he asked abruptly, looking down at his chest. Sure enough, the tips of a couple letters were visible, the rest of the name obstructed by his tank top. His heart was pounding. This was real. He had a soulmate! He rushed over to the mirror, pulling his shirt up for the best view possible. The name was in the most cliché spot he could imagine, right over his heart, but as Keith read the name aloud, he didn’t give a flying fuck about clichés.  
“Lance.” He couldn’t be happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone for all your comments and support! Please feel free to let me know if anything needs fixing. I couldn't help but make Keith an avid boxer even though I know nothing about boxing, so definitely correct me if i messed up the lingo ;) thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment and let me know if you're interested in seeing more.


End file.
